Increasing traffic through your online front door

July 12, 2011

You work hard to bring customers through the doors of your brick-and-mortar store by running ads and specials, through direct mail campaigns and email blasts and by hosting events. Are you also focusing your efforts on increasing traffic through your online front door?

With the availability and convenience of laptops, mobile devices and tablets, most consumers now research a product online prior to making a purchase. By increasing visitor traffic through the online front door of your website, you will ultimately increase the floor traffic at your dealership.

Simply having a website on the Internet will not increase your traffic. However, there are steps that you can take to successfully grow the number of visitors to your site. Begin the process by evaluating how you are promoting your website. Your website URL should be listed on all print material including: dealership stationery, receipts, business cards, print ads and billboards. Remember to provide your website address on radio ads and include it on your recorded telephone message.

Next, take a look at your electronic communication such as email and newsletters. Your website address should be included on all electronic communication with at least one link to your website.

Evaluate the performance of your site on search engines. Check your site’s placement on Google, Yahoo and Bing. By reviewing your website analytics reports, you can determine which search engines are driving traffic to your site. Based on your findings, you can improve your organic search engine placement by keeping content on your site fresh and by providing beneficial inbound links to your website from sources such as a Facebook or Twitter page, videos on YouTube or a dealership blog. The key is to include your website URL on your social sites and in the description of your videos.

Your web analytics will also provide you with a list of the keywords customers are using to find your website. If there are keywords relevant to your dealership that don’t appear in your analytics reporting, you can improve your search results by adjusting your site’s META tags and content to include these specific keywords and keyword phrases.

Increasing your online traffic takes diligence. By chipping away at some of these tactics, you can translate online visits to more customers walking through your front doors.